The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to initializing solid state memory for an information handling system.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Solid state drives (SSDs) are becoming more popular and nearing adoption as mainstream data storage devices for the PC and notebook markets. The SSDs use solid state memory devices, such as flash memory or the like, for data storage. The SSDs have performance advantages over traditional electro-mechanical magnetic hard disk drives (HDDs) due to very low data access times, low power consumption, and no moving mechanical parts.
A problem with SSDs is that with current technologies, if a user wants to create an SSD with, for example, a 32 GB capacity, the device must be created by integrating sixteen 2 GB capacity components together. At power up for the IHS, the SSDs must initialize or “wake-up” each of the components serially in order to create a defect table and to gather other information required for proper wear leveling and management of the memory devices. This serial initialization of all the components can take several seconds due to the number of individual components integrated together to obtain the desired SSD capacity. As a result, IHS operating system boot-up or resume time is negatively impacted.
To combat this slow initialization time, others have limited the number of flash-type components in the SSD. However, this limits capacity and decreases read/write performance. Another response to this problem is to create a hybrid HDD. These systems use solid state flash-type components in conjunction with traditional magnetic HDD media. The small amount of solid state components in this hybrid can lower boot/resume times and save power, but this also limits flexibility in solid state media capacity and adds significant complexity to the HDD system. In addition, these hybrid drives do not provide the shock and vibration robustness that a pure solid state device can.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide for initializing solid state memory absent the disadvantages found in the prior methods discussed above.